Superior Wall

[HouseBoy]

highwindguy recently commented about this product on thread 726-203778
What is the experience with Superior Wall product?
Those few whom I've spoken to don't seem favorable to it but I see it being used in the largest houses ($1 to $2 million) around here (Cincinnati Ohio).
What is technical justification or rationalization per ACI?
What have others seen?
How do builders get this product "accepted" by local building officials?

 

[ctcray]

I've seen them used regularly around here (Maryland) for some while. I can't recall hearing any performance problems with them. What concerns me most is that a lot of do-it-yourself homebuilders are using them, and they don't know enough about the loads applied to the foundation wall to properly communicate to the manufacturer. I believe Superior Walls wants to know about any point load over 6,000 lbs so that they can add additional "studs" beneath the point load. The homeowner has the roof trussed, which creates larger girder reactions OR they eliminate some posts in the basement, greatly increasing the beam reaction on the wall, and none of this gets to Superior Walls before they build them. Also, as part of the foundation package, the homeowner will order the smallest column "pads" (<10,000 lb capacity) not realizing they have 25,000 lbs on the column now.

That said, I think the system works if you follow their design procedures, and you understand the loads on the foundation. Whether the premium you pay over poured concrete is worth it is another question.

The only other concern i've heard voiced is how well the sealant between the panels holds up over time. But again, I've not heard of any examples of these failures from the houses I was involved with.

 

[HouseBoy]

In the past (when I toured the local plant) two of the things that concerned me were:
1. The interior studs are separated from the face panel by the foam insulation board. The studs are tied to the face panel with 20d nails (cast into the stud and sticking out so that they are embedded into the face) across that interface. I was told they were working on getting the studs to be cast integrally with the face panels.
2. Haunches that were used to support brick lintels were installed by casting a haunch onto the face panel and "sticking" two pieces of #4 bar about 5 inches long into the face to tie the two parts together.

Does anyone know if they have changed the process so that the face and the studs are cast integrally?

Also, I was thinking the point load requirement was about 2800 lbs.